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ALPAR: automated learning pipeline for antimicrobial resistance.

SUMMARY: The field of machine learning in antimicrobial resistance (AMR) research has experienced rapid growth, fueled by advancements in high-throughput genome sequencing and the growing capacity of computational resources. However, the complexity and lack of standardized data preparation and bioinformatic analyses present significant challenges, especially for newcomers to the domain. In response to these challenges, we introduce ALPAR (Automated Learning Pipeline for Antimicrobial Resistance), a comprehensive AMR data analysis tool covering the entire process from processing of raw genomic data to training machine learning models to interpretation of results. Our method relies on a reproducible pipeline that integrates widely used bioinformatics tools, presenting a simplified, automatic workflow specifically tailored for single-reference AMR analysis. Accepting genomic data in the form of FASTA files as input, ALPAR facilitates the generation of machine learning-ready data tables and both the training of machine learning and the execution of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) experiments. Additionally, our tool offers supplementary functionalities such as phylogeny-based analysis of the distribution of mutations, enhancing its utility for researchers. The tool has also proven its performance in competitive benchmarks, winning the 2024 CAMDA Anti-Microbial Resistance Prediction Challenge and placing third in the 2025 edition. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: ALPAR is open-source and freely accessible via GitHub (https://github.com/kalininalab/ALPAR). The pipeline is fully reproducible and can be easily installed as a Conda package (https://anaconda.org/kalininalab/ALPAR).

Machine Learning↗

Investigating semantic similarity measures across the Gene Ontology: the relationship between sequence and annotation.

MOTIVATION: Many bioinformatics data resources not only hold data in the form of sequences, but also as annotation. In the majority of cases, annotation is written as scientific natural language: this is suitable for humans, but not particularly useful for machine processing. Ontologies offer a mechanism by which knowledge can be represented in a form capable of such processing. In this paper we investigate the use of ontological annotation to measure the similarities in knowledge content or 'semantic similarity' between entries in a data resource. These allow a bioinformatician to perform a similarity measure over annotation in an analogous manner to those performed over sequences. A measure of semantic similarity for the knowledge component of bioinformatics resources should afford a biologist a new tool in their repertoire of analyses. RESULTS: We present the results from experiments that investigate the validity of using semantic similarity by comparison with sequence similarity. We show a simple extension that enables a semantic search of the knowledge held within sequence databases. AVAILABILITY: Software available from http://www.russet.org.uk.

Artificial Intelligence↗

KISS for STRAP: user extensions for a protein alignment editor.

SUMMARY: The Structural Alignment Program STRAP is a comfortable comprehensive editor and analyzing tool for protein alignments. A wide range of functions related to protein sequences and protein structures are accessible with an intuitive graphical interface. Recent features include mapping of mutations and polymorphisms onto structures and production of high quality figures for publication. Here we address the general problem of multi-purpose program packages to keep up with the rapid development of bioinformatical methods and the demand for specific program functions. STRAP was remade implementing a novel design which aims at Keeping Interfaces in STRAP Simple (KISS). KISS renders STRAP extendable to bio-scientists as well as to bio-informaticians. Scientists with basic computer skills are capable of implementing statistical methods or embedding existing bioinformatical tools in STRAP themselves. For bio-informaticians STRAP may serve as an environment for rapid prototyping and testing of complex algorithms such as automatic alignment algorithms or phylogenetic methods. Further, STRAP can be applied as an interactive web applet to present data related to a particular protein family and as a teaching tool. REQUIREMENTS: JAVA-1.4 or higher. AVAILABILITY: http://www.charite.de/bioinf/strap/

Computer Graphics↗

Support vector machine classification on the web.

The support vector machine (SVM) learning algorithm has been widely applied in bioinformatics. We have developed a simple web interface to our implementation of the SVM algorithm, called Gist. This interface allows novice or occasional users to apply a sophisticated machine learning algorithm easily to their data. More advanced users can download the software and source code for local installation. The availability of these tools will permit more widespread application of this powerful learning algorithm in bioinformatics.

Algorithms↗

Confirmation of data mining based predictions of protein function.

MOTIVATION: A central problem in bioinformatics is the assignment of function to sequenced open reading frames (ORFs). The most common approach is based on inferred homology using a statistically based sequence similarity (SIM) method, e.g. PSI-BLAST. Alternative non-SIM based bioinformatic methods are becoming popular. One such method is Data Mining Prediction (DMP). This is based on combining evidence from amino-acid attributes, predicted structure and phylogenic patterns; and uses a combination of Inductive Logic Programming data mining, and decision trees to produce prediction rules for functional class. DMP predictions are more general than is possible using homology. In 2000/1, DMP was used to make public predictions of the function of 1309 Escherichia coli ORFs. Since then biological knowledge has advanced allowing us to test our predictions. RESULTS: We examined the updated (20.02.02) Riley group genome annotation, and examined the scientific literature for direct experimental derivations of ORF function. Both tests confirmed the DMP predictions. Accuracy varied between rules, and with the detail of prediction, but they were generally significantly better than random. For voting rules, accuracies of 75-100% were obtained. Twenty-one of these DMP predictions have been confirmed by direct experimentation. The DMP rules also have interesting biological explanations. DMP is, to the best of our knowledge, the first non-SIM based prediction method to have been tested directly on new data. AVAILABILITY: We have designed the "Genepredictions" database for protein functional predictions. This is intended to act as an open repository for predictions for any organism and can be accessed at http://www.genepredictions.org

Abstracting and Indexing↗

OBIYagns: a grid-based biochemical simulator with a parameter estimator.

UNLABELLED: OBIYagns (yet another gene network simulator) is a biochemical system simulator that comprises a multiple-user Web-based graphical interface, an ordinary differential equation solver and a parameter estimators distributed over an open bioinformatics grid (OBIGrid). This grid-based biochemical simulation system can achieve high performance and provide a secure simulation environment for estimating kinetic parameters in an acceptable time period. OBIYagns can be applied to larger system biology-oriented simulation projects. AVAILABILITY: OBIYagns example models, methods and user guide are available at https://access.obigrid.org/yagns/ SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Please refer to Bioinformatics online.

Algorithms↗

ProteoMix: an integrated and flexible system for interactively analyzing large numbers of protein sequences.

UNLABELLED: ProteoMix is a suite of JAVA programs for identifying, annotating and predicting regions of interest in large sets of amino acid sequences, according to systematic and consistent criteria. It is based on two concepts (1) the integration of results from different sequence analysis tools increases the prediction reliability; and (2) the integration protocol is critical and needs to be easily adaptable in a case-by-case manner. ProteoMix was designed to analyze simultaneously multiple protein sequences using several bioinformatics tools, merge the results of the analyses using logical functions and display them on an integrated viewer. In addition, new sequences can be added seamlessly to an analysis performed on an initial set of sequences. ProteoMix has a modular design, and bioinformatics tools are run on remote servers accessed using the Internet Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), ensuring the swift implementation of additional tools. ProteoMix has a user-friendly interactive graphical user interface environment and runs on PCs with Microsoft OS. AVAILABILITY: ProteoMix is freely available for academic users at http://bio.gsc.riken.jp/ProteoMix/

Database Management Systems↗

HyBrow: a prototype system for computer-aided hypothesis evaluation.

MOTIVATION: Experimental design, hypothesis-testing and model-building in the current data-rich environment require the biologists' to collect, evaluate and integrate large amounts of information of many disparate kinds. Developing a unified framework for the representation and conceptual integration of biological data and processes is a major challenge in bioinformatics because of the variety of available data and the different levels of detail at which biological processes can be considered. RESULTS: We have developed the HyBrow (Hypothesis Browser) system as a prototype bioinformatics tool for designing hypotheses and evaluating them for consistency with existing knowledge. HyBrow consists of a modeling framework with the ability to accommodate diverse biological information sources, an event-based ontology for representing biological processes at different levels of detail, a database to query information in the ontology and programs to perform hypothesis design and evaluation. We demonstrate the HyBrow prototype using the galactose gene network in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as our test system, and evaluate alternative hypotheses for consistency with stored information. AVAILABILITY: www.hybrow.org

Computational Biology↗

Exploring Williams-Beuren syndrome using myGrid.

MOTIVATION: In silico experiments necessitate the virtual organization of people, data, tools and machines. The scientific process also necessitates an awareness of the experience base, both of personal data as well as the wider context of work. The management of all these data and the co-ordination of resources to manage such virtual organizations and the data surrounding them needs significant computational infra-structure support. RESULTS: In this paper, we show that (my)Grid, middleware for the Semantic Grid, enables biologists to perform and manage in silico experiments, then explore and exploit the results of their experiments. We demonstrate (my)Grid in the context of a series of bioinformatics experiments focused on a 1.5 Mb region on chromosome 7 which is deleted in Williams-Beuren syndrome (WBS). Due to the highly repetitive nature of sequence flanking/in the WBS critical region (WBSCR), sequencing of the region is incomplete leaving documented gaps in the released sequence. (my)Grid was used in a series of experiments to find newly sequenced human genomic DNA clones that extended into these 'gap' regions in order to produce a complete and accurate map of the WBSCR. Once placed in this region, these DNA sequences were analysed with a battery of prediction tools in order to locate putative genes and regulatory elements possibly implicated in the disorder. Finally, any genes discovered were submitted to a range of standard bioinformatics tools for their characterization. We report how (my)Grid has been used to create workflows for these in silico experiments, run those workflows regularly and notify the biologist when new DNA and genes are discovered. The (my)Grid services collect and co-ordinate data inputs and outputs for the experiment, as well as much provenance information about the performance of experiments on WBS. AVAILABILITY: The (my)Grid software is available via http://www.mygrid.org.uk

Algorithms↗

Mining sequence annotation databanks for association patterns.

MOTIVATION: Millions of protein sequences currently being deposited to sequence databanks will never be annotated manually. Similarity-based annotation generated by automatic software pipelines unavoidably contains spurious assignments due to the imperfection of bioinformatics methods. Examples of such annotation errors include over- and underpredictions caused by the use of fixed recognition thresholds and incorrect annotations caused by transitivity based information transfer to unrelated proteins or transfer of errors already accumulated in databases. One of the most difficult and timely challenges in bioinformatics is the development of intelligent systems aimed at improving the quality of automatically generated annotation. A possible approach to this problem is to detect anomalies in annotation items based on association rule mining. RESULTS: We present the first large-scale analysis of association rules derived from two large protein annotation databases-Swiss-Prot and PEDANT-and reveal novel, previously unknown tendencies of rule strength distributions. Most of the rules are either very strong or very weak, with rules in the medium strength range being relatively infrequent. Based on dynamics of error correction in subsequent Swiss-Prot releases and on our own manual analysis we demonstrate that exceptions from strong rules are, indeed, significantly enriched in annotation errors and can be used to automatically flag them. We identify different strength dependencies of rules derived from different fields in Swiss-Prot. A compositional breakdown of association rules generated from PEDANT in terms of their constituent items indicates that most of the errors that can be corrected are related to gene functional roles. Swiss-Prot errors are usually caused by under-annotation owing to its conservative approach, whereas automatically generated PEDANT annotation suffers from over-annotation. AVAILABILITY: All data generated in this study are available for download and browsing at http://pedant.gsf.de/ARIA/index.htm.

Conserved Sequence↗

The carbohydrate sequence markup language (CabosML): an XML description of carbohydrate structures.

UNLABELLED: Bioinformatics resources for glycomics are very poor as compared with those for genomics and proteomics. The complexity of carbohydrate sequences makes it difficult to define a common language to represent them, and the development of bioinformatics tools for glycomics has not progressed. In this study, we developed a carbohydrate sequence markup language (CabosML), an XML description of carbohydrate structures. AVAILABILITY: The language definition (XML Schema) and an experimental database of carbohydrate structures using an XML database management system are available at http://www.phoenix.hydra.mki.co.jp/CabosDemo.html CONTACT: kikuchi@hydra.mki.co.jp.

Carbohydrate Sequence↗

Drosophila DNase I footprint database: a systematic genome annotation of transcription factor binding sites in the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster.

UNLABELLED: Despite increasing numbers of computational tools developed to predict cis-regulatory sequences, the availability of high-quality datasets of transcription factor binding sites limits advances in the bioinformatics of gene regulation. Here we present such a dataset based on a systematic literature curation and genome annotation of DNase I footprints for the fruitfly, Drosophila melanogaster. Using the experimental results of 201 primary references, we annotated 1367 binding sites from 87 transcription factors and 101 target genes in the D.melanogaster genome sequence. These data will provide a rich resource for future bioinformatics analyses of transcriptional regulation in Drosophila such as constructing motif models, training cis-regulatory module detectors, benchmarking alignment tools and continued text mining of the extensive literature on transcriptional regulation in this important model organism. AVAILABILITY: http://www.flyreg.org/ CONTACT: cbergman@gen.cam.ac.uk.

Binding Sites↗

PatGen--a consolidated resource for searching genetic patent sequences.

UNLABELLED: Compared to the wealth of online resources covering genomic, proteomic and derived data the Bioinformatics community is rather underserved when it comes to patent information related to biological sequences. The current online resources are either incomplete or rather expensive. This paper describes, PatGen, an integrated database containing data from bioinformatic and patent resources. This effort addresses the inconsistency of publicly available genetic patent data coverage by providing access to a consolidated dataset. AVAILABILITY: PatGen can be searched at http://www.patgendb.com CONTACT: rjdrouse@patentinformatics.com.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

Fast parsers for Entrez Gene.

NCBI completed the transition of its main genome annotation database from Locuslink to Entrez Gene in Spring 2005. However, to this date few parsers exist for the Entrez Gene annotation file. Owing to the widespread use of Locuslink and the popularity of Perl programming language in bioinformatics, a publicly available high performance Entrez Gene parser in Perl is urgently needed. We present four such parsers that were developed using several parsing approaches (Parse::RecDescent, Parse::Yapp, Perl-byacc and Perl 5 regular expressions) and provide the first in-depth comparison of these sophisticated Perl tools. Our fastest parser processes the entire human Entrez Gene annotation file in under 12 min on one Intel Xeon 2.4 GHz CPU and can be of help to the bioinformatics community during and after the transition from Locuslink to Entrez Gene.

Algorithms↗

Discovering patterns to extract protein-protein interactions from the literature: Part II.

MOTIVATION: An enormous number of protein-protein interaction relationships are buried in millions of research articles published over the years, and the number is growing. Rediscovering them automatically is a challenging bioinformatics task. Solutions to this problem also reach far beyond bioinformatics. RESULTS: We study a new approach that involves automatically discovering English expression patterns, optimizing them and using them to extract protein-protein interactions. In a sister paper, we described how to generate English expression patterns related to protein-protein interactions, and this approach alone has already achieved precision and recall rates significantly higher than those of other automatic systems. This paper continues to present our theory, focusing on how to improve the patterns. A minimum description length (MDL)-based pattern-optimization algorithm is designed to reduce and merge patterns. This has significantly increased generalization power, and hence the recall and precision rates, as confirmed by our experiments. AVAILABILITY: http://spies.cs.tsinghua.edu.cn.

Abstracting and Indexing↗

Computational cluster validation in post-genomic data analysis.

MOTIVATION: The discovery of novel biological knowledge from the ab initio analysis of post-genomic data relies upon the use of unsupervised processing methods, in particular clustering techniques. Much recent research in bioinformatics has therefore been focused on the transfer of clustering methods introduced in other scientific fields and on the development of novel algorithms specifically designed to tackle the challenges posed by post-genomic data. The partitions returned by a clustering algorithm are commonly validated using visual inspection and concordance with prior biological knowledge--whether the clusters actually correspond to the real structure in the data is somewhat less frequently considered. Suitable computational cluster validation techniques are available in the general data-mining literature, but have been given only a fraction of the same attention in bioinformatics. RESULTS: This review paper aims to familiarize the reader with the battery of techniques available for the validation of clustering results, with a particular focus on their application to post-genomic data analysis. Synthetic and real biological datasets are used to demonstrate the benefits, and also some of the perils, of analytical clustervalidation. AVAILABILITY: The software used in the experiments is available at http://dbkweb.ch.umist.ac.uk/handl/clustervalidation/. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Enlarged colour plots are provided in the Supplementary Material, which is available at http://dbkweb.ch.umist.ac.uk/handl/clustervalidation/.

Algorithms↗

REDfly: a Regulatory Element Database for Drosophila.

Bioinformatics studies of transcriptional regulation in the metazoa are significantly hindered by the absence of readily available data on large numbers of transcriptional cis-regulatory modules (CRMs). Even the richly annotated Drosophila melanogaster genome lacks extensive CRM information. We therefore present here a database of Drosophila CRMs curated from the literature complete with both DNA sequence and a searchable description of the gene expression pattern regulated by each CRM. This resource should greatly facilitate the development of computational approaches to CRM discovery as well as bioinformatics analyses of regulatory sequence properties and evolution.

Animals↗

Multiple Alignment of protein structures and sequences for VMD.

Multiple Alignment is a new interface for performing and analyzing multiple protein structure alignments. It enables viewing levels of sequence and structure similarity on the aligned structures and performing a variety of evolutionary and bioinformatic tasks, including the construction of structure-based phylogenetic trees and minimal basis sets of structures that best represent the topology of the phylogenetic tree. It is implemented as a plugin for VMD (Visual Molecular Dynamics), which is distributed by the NIH Resource for Macromolecular Modeling and Bioinformatics at the University of Illinois.

Amino Acid Sequence↗